This invention relates to an in-home surveillance system.
Heretofore, public rates readings have been carried out by a meter-reader visiting each house, reading the scale of each integrating meter and entering this reading into a terminal. From this data, invoices are created and sent out by mail.
However, the work of the meter-reader involves movement from door to door, and is far from efficient. There is thus the issue that the expense relating to the meter-reader forms one part of the fee that each household is responsible for.
In addition, in household security services, there is a system that detects a fire developing, or unusual vibrations in the doors or windows and so forth to automatically inform through a protocol using a telephone line.
However, the occupant has to operate the system from a terminal installed on the wall for example, and there is a problem in the case of a sudden illness or emergency. Specifically, there is a problem of a delay in informing the police or ambulance if the occupant is immobilized in incidents such as kidnaping or burglary, or has lost consciousness because of an unexpected illness, or if moving becomes difficult.
Internet is connected by way of the so-called dial-up connection only when required using the telephone line or ISDN line.
Because of deregulation, there is no boundary between broadcasting and communicating, and CATV which is conventionally used for broadcasting can be utilized for communicating. With the CATV, a coaxial cable is used in the broad range of frequency band, from 5 MHz to 1000 MHz. Optical fibers also can be utilized.
It is possible to utilize the broad range of frequency band in the full-time connection to the Internet.
In order to solve the above problems, it is an object of the invention to provide an in-home surveillance-system that can reliably ensure the safety of an occupant, with low cost and easy maintenance.